By
Rebecca Gibson |
Over a history spanning 160 years, the Survitec Group has established a reputation synonymous with quality, innovation and design, offering best-in-class brands and swiftly responding to demands of the changing marine market. For the past 30 years, the group has been engaged in the development and continual improvement of marine evacuation systems. This month has seen the Group announce two groundbreaking advancements to the RFD MarinArk and the SurvitecZodiac Medium Inflatable Slide Escape Slide System.
The RFD MarinArk has recently received classification approval from Lloyds Register for its increased passenger capacity Mass Evacuation System (MES). No other single Life Saving Appliance can rapidly and safely evacuate up to 860 passengers in less than 30 minutes. This new development which offers increased passenger capacity has been driven largely by the industry, through an unprecedented growth in newbuilds within the cruise and ferry sector.
With this latest innovation, we can now offer the safe and efficient evacuation of passengers, which gives our larger passenger vessels more options for modern system configurations and reduces the need for legacy evacuation options such as lifeboats.
SMM 2012 in Hamburg in September served as the platform for the launch of an innovative new ‘remote liferaft launch’ feature for the SurvitecZodiac MIS (Medium Inflatable Slide) Escape Slide System. The system enables a second liferaft to be remotely launched after the double track escape slide has been deployed and its first 150-person liferaft has been automatically inflated. Pulling on a painter line on the ship triggers deployment of the second liferaft.
The development of a remote inflation capability now eliminates the need for any crew to leave the ship ahead of passengers and permits the almost immediate deployment of a second liferaft as soon as the first has been activated. This is expected to save valuable seconds of vessel evacuation time for passengers and crew.”
The SurvitecZodiac range of Marine Evacuation Systems is already at the forefront of escape slide performance, with this particular Escape Slide System offering high-speed evacuation of 731 passengers in 30 minutes, when used with SurvitecZodiac Throw Over 150-person canopy liferafts. When used with SurvitecZodiac Open Reversible Inflatable 151-person open liferafts, 397 passengers can escape in 17 minutes 40 seconds.
The new system is suitable for a wide range of vessels, including high-speed craft governed by the International Code of Safety for High-Speed Craft, small passenger vessels operating in national waters, military vessels and RoRo ferries on short international voyages. These are all significant milestones for Survitec Group as the company moves into its third decade of MES installations.